Written by: David Christopher

Translated by: Saoirse, Foresight News

The policy infrastructure of the cryptocurrency industry has matured significantly over the past decade.

From an initial single think tank in Washington, it has evolved into a complete network composed of industry associations, advocacy organizations, and specialized lobbying agencies focused on specific ecosystems.

The current landscape covers both comprehensive industry groups and specialized advocates targeting single ecosystems, each playing different roles in promoting regulatory clarity.

In February 2026, the Hyperliquid Policy Center was officially established, becoming the latest member; prior to this, the Solana Policy Institute made its debut in 2025.

Let’s delve deeper: In the power center of cryptocurrency policy in Washington, which agencies are actually speaking out.

Coin Center (2014)

The earliest cryptocurrency policy think tank.

Coin Center has been deeply engaged in Washington for over a decade, consistently advocating for open blockchain networks and user rights, and is the most ideologically liberal organization in the industry.

Unlike other organizations that center around industry interests, Coin Center prioritizes representing individual users: defending users' rights to self-custody, privacy protection, and the right to use crypto assets without burdensome tax constraints.

Its core goals for 2026 include:

• Advocating for the "Keep Your Coins Act" to prohibit the federal government from banning self-custody;
• Supporting the "Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act" (BRCA), clarifying that developers who do not custody user funds should not be classified as money transmitters;
• Proposing detailed tax reforms: establishing a $600 tax-free threshold for small transactions, simplifying cost basis reporting, and taxing staking rewards only upon sale, not upon receipt.

The taxation of staking rewards is a common pain point across the industry.

Currently, the IRS treats newly issued tokens from staking as taxable income in the current period, leading validators to have to pay taxes without selling any assets, resulting in extremely high compliance costs.

Coin Center advocates that staking rewards be treated like other generated assets: taxed upon sale.

Blockchain Association (BA, 2018)

The largest cryptocurrency industry association in the United States, representing over 100 member organizations, including exchanges, mining companies, DeFi protocols, and infrastructure providers.

If Coin Center speaks based on ideology, the Blockchain Association operates in an alliance mode: coordinating member interests and translating them into legislative priorities.

Current focuses include:

• Tax equity, market structure legislation, DeFi protection;
• Formally releasing tax principles, calling for small transaction exemptions, treating stablecoins as cash equivalents, and domesticating perpetual contracts;
• Fully supporting BRCA and broader developer protection provisions.

DeFi Education Fund (DEF, 2021)

Originally established with governance funding from Uniswap, focusing specifically on decentralized finance.

Its work revolves around three pillars: protecting software developers, empowering DeFi users, and defending permissionless blockchains.

At the developer level:

DEF advocates that when third parties misuse tools, builders should be exempt from liability, opposing the imposition of a regulatory framework designed for custodial intermediaries on developers. Consistent with Coin Center and the Blockchain Association, DEF also strongly supports BRCA (the "Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act").

At the user level:

Advocating for self-custody rights, privacy protections, reducing reliance on trusted third parties, and emphasizing financial inclusion — permissionless networks allow users to bypass gatekeepers and freely access financial services.

DEF's approach is more focused on legal and research: submitting amicus briefs, regulatory comments, publishing popular science interpretations, operating the high-impact "DeFi Debrief" newsletter, and continuously pushing for BRCA's inclusion in the overall market structure legislation.

Solana Policy Institute (2025)

The first policy organization dedicated exclusively to a public chain ecosystem in the industry, co-founded by the former CEO of the DeFi Education Fund and the former CEO of the Blockchain Association.

It shares core demands with the entire industry (developer protection, staking tax reform) while closely serving the strategic interests of the Solana ecosystem.

Core agenda features:

• Project Open: promoting pilot programs for tokenized securities, allowing issuers to register equity as digital tokens on public chains, achieving instant settlements and transparent ownership records, positioning Solana as the infrastructure to expand traditional capital markets;
• Supporting the "Equal Opportunity for All Investors Act": expanding the definition of accredited investors to consider knowledge qualifications rather than solely wealth thresholds. The organization points out that existing rules exclude 87% of Americans from the private market.

Hyperliquid Policy Center (2026)

The newest and most vertically focused cryptocurrency policy institution, established with $29 million in funding from the Hyper Foundation, with a singular core mission: to ensure the compliance of perpetual futures in the U.S. market.

Led by the former Chief Policy Officer of the Blockchain Association, HPC precisely targets the regulatory gaps in decentralized derivatives — this is Hyperliquid's core business and one of the fastest-growing sectors in the cryptocurrency industry.

Institutional goals:

Educating policymakers on the operational logic of non-custodial trading protocols, promoting a regulatory framework that eliminates the need for intermediary custody.

The timing is strategically significant:

With the "Clarity Act" stalled in the Senate, HPC seizes the window to shape the regulatory understanding of DeFi derivatives.

Its core argument:

The perpetual contract market will inevitably move offshore and towards decentralized protocols; the U.S. needs to either establish a framework to compete or fully relinquish the market.

Data shows that by 2025, trading volume in perpetual contracts will reach as high as $92.7 trillion.

Consensuses and Differences Across the Industry

Despite the differing positions and scopes of the five organizations, their core demands are highly consistent:

Common goals:

• Developer protection: nearly all support BRCA, clarifying that developers who do not custody funds are not money transmitters;
• Staking tax reform: taxing block rewards/staking rewards upon sale rather than upon receipt;
• User self-custody rights;
• Tax exemptions for small transactions.

Differences in direction:

• Coin Center: steadfast in ideology, focusing on privacy and user rights;
• Blockchain Association: coordinating the interests of over 100 members in the industry;
• DeFi Education Fund: delving into sub-regulatory and legal support specific to DeFi;
• Solana/Hyperliquid policy institutes: ecosystem-specific, tightly aligning agendas with their core business (tokenization of securities, perpetual contracts).

These organizations collectively define the underlying values of the industry while reserving special space for advancing key sub-issues, marking the transition of the U.S. cryptocurrency industry from a "unified voice" to an era of "specialization, ecosystem focus, and refinement" in policy advocacy.